"I am not saying that state or local governments should abolish their laws in the area of vices; they have a duty to maintain public order and decorum in their communities."
Funny...I thought the Declaration of Independence said that governments were instituted to secure individual rights. I don't recall anything about "public decorum."
Don't know if anyone saw it, but last night my local PBS TV affiliate was running a piece about Chicago in The American Experience. There was some utopian industrialist who set up an "ideal community" at the 1892 Chicago World's Fair.
The industrialist owned everything in town, and his men would come and *gently* remind people that the color of their drapes didn't fit with public decorum. If they didn't change the drapes, they'd be evicted. There was general agreement that the arrangement was hardly a "Utopia."
In an ideal world, where people avoided destructive behavior and lived by the Golden Rule, governments would be unnecessary. But we do not live in such a world. A nation where local government could place no restraint on public behavior would be unpleasant for all but libertines. I respect my neighbor's privacy but I don't want them using their front yard as an outdoor privy. I believe in freedom of speech but I do not want to see billboards with private parts in full view. I support the free market, but I do not want a residential neighbor turning his home into a junk yard or a slaughterhouse.
Unlike the "big government" pro-War on Drugs conservative, I do not believe criminal or civil laws are to be used as an instrument of moral reform or societal improvement. But unlike many libertarians, I would fear the consequences on others of unrestrained public behavior.
In the 19th Century, an individual had the option of living in a wide open city with little restraint on vice, like San Francisco, New York, or New Orleans, or in an area where the sidewalks "rolled up at 6 PM," as was the case of most of small town and rural America. The genius of Federalism is that, although the Federal government ensures basic rights (speech, religion, press, firearms ownership, et. al.), localities have the option of a wide set of standards.